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Primer and Face Frame

9/17/2015

All I have got to say is that this entertainment center is a beast and it has taken so much work to finish. AND we are still not done, but I wanted to give you an update anyways. Down below is the SketchUp of our entertainment center. This program is awesome and helps you design your project down to the little details. Also, it's a great visual aid to literally see how it works in your space! Most times we measure out the whole room first and plug those dimensions into SketchUp before we design. That way we know for sure that the proportions and style will work perfectly in the room. I could already visualize this entertainment center in our family room, so I didn't feel the need to measure our whole room. I guess I kind of winged it, but luckily it worked out for the better! Now that I look more at the picture below, I realized that the "tv" border and the drawer borders are all pushed over to the right...not sure how that happened, but OH well! It wasn't like that when we printed it out thank goodness!

And here was my inspiration down below. This came from Lauren Liess's house (that just sold), an amazing designer that I follow. Click on her blue name above to see her portfolio.

We had to adjust shelves according to our own rooms measurements, but I wanted it to be as close as possible to her cabinet, because I LOVE it. I am also going to order some minimal brass pull tabs for the middle drawers. Our side doors will be a push style door with no exterior hardware. We have two shelves above the tv, rather then one and our tv and space around it is MUCH smaller then hers :)

Last weekend Johnny built the 6 drawers and 4 doors, and there were a lot of details that just made it take much longer then I thought it would. I primed the cabinets and that took me forever. I also decided to prime a couple of doors in our entryway that were driving me nuts with their awful 80's wood tones. It has been screaming "paint me" since we moved in last December :) Two weekends ago we pretty much only worked on the electrical. There were several new outlets to be added, lot of wires/cables to be worked through the back wall that has insulation, and I'm sure other stuff that I just don't understand and luckily Johnny does. I might start a first coat of paint (BM Mascarpone)...possibly tomorrow if I have time. This weekend we should be able to install the drawers and doors. So, here are a few progress shots.

Doesn't the primer and face frame already make it look so much better then before?!!! The face frame is the wood that gets installed on/ in front of the cabinet to make the wood look thicker, more substantial and pulls it all together. It's definitely a motivator for me to get the paint finished! Oh, and did you notice? The art wall is gone! I took it all down and moved it back to our formal dining room/my office. I decided that it felt too dark and busy for this room, especially when I start loading up the bookshelves with books, decor, etc. I am still not for sure what I am doing on the left wall yet. Actually, all of what you see along that left wall in the last picture is already gone. I moved the hanging plant up to Maya's room, the mirror Johnny built back up into the guest room, and the picture and dresser are back in our bedroom. The vents really stick out in the bookcase, so I am hoping to put some books and decor in front of them to help hide them. Sadly, the vents have to stay, so there is no way around that one. We still need to drill one more hole for the speakers, but other then that, we only need to:

1) prime and paint a couple of layers on the doors and drawers
2) install the doors and drawers
3) paint a couple of coats on the rest of the entertainment center
4) install hardware on the 6 drawers in the middle and push hardware for the two side doors

We are getting so close! Surely, next week we will be finished (well, except for the hardware that will hopefully be ordered by the end of this weekend). Wish us luck!

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A Plant Weakness

9/10/2015

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We are hoping to finish up more on the entertainment center this weekend, so sadly no updated pictures yet. We did get the face frame finished on it, so it's definitely starting to look more substantial and put together. I can't wait to start using it :) Also, I already took down the vintage art wall. Haha! It felt too cluttered and just didn't feel balanced enough for this room. I am planning on using the vintage art in our formal living room and now I need to figure out what I want to do back in the family room.

So, while we wait for that to get finished up, here are some things I am really enjoying right now. PLANTS! I love plants...I'm sure you could tell that from reading the "Plants and Paint" post ;) If I am at Home Depot or Lowes, I am most likely going to be in the plant section and I rarely come home without a new plant. Plants are definitely a weakness for me. Sorry Johnny!

This new house of ours doesn't get a lot of bright natural light, so I've had to learn more about low light plants and force myself to use the spaces closest to the windows, which can sometimes be a challenge for me. There are a few corners I would love to fill with tall accent plants, but the spaces are just too dark for those. I sold two of my indoor plants and might end up selling one more...not quite sure yet. I might give it another winter/spring and see how it holds up. Down below is my asparagus fern. If you live in the Tulsa area, I bought it (along with the pot) at "Ted and Debbie's" on Harvard, just north of 41st street, and I LOVE it. This room (our formal dinning room/my office) does get some scattered light in the morning like in the first picture, but most of the time it looks more like the second picture. We have a thick canopy of trees in our backyard, so anything near the east side is lucky to get dappled bits of sunlight. But so far this fern has held up really well in its spot (ha...even with the cats taking their annoying turns laying on it...but I think we have solved that problem for now) and I have no plans to move it.

The window that gets the most sunlight on the east side of our house seems to be the kitchen window. So, I had Johnny build a cement planter to fit perfectly on our window sill. These pictures are actually a little old, because I have since filled them in with some more colored/textured succulents. I love it and so far the succulents have been pretty easy to keep alive. Knock on wood!!! I water them once a week. I filled the bottom of the planter with small rocks, so that it would drain well.

I tried planting herbs in the concrete planter at first, but they didn't do well. Some died and the others that were lucky enough to stay alive are now out front getting full sun. I REALLY hope that I can keep these succulents alive. Oh, and my sweet sister in law gave me my first air plant and I LOVE it! All I have to do is give it a quick soak in water once a week and it's good to go. She gifted it to me during my last miscarriage and every time I look at it I am reminded of how good God is, even during those more challenging times in life. Thank you Lydia for being so thoughtful! It truly meant so much to me!

Once we finish this entertainment center, we are planning for a couple fun trips (one with the kids and one without). I'm so excited for a trip (I think, well, I KNOW Johnny is even more excited just for a break, so he doesn't have to work on my "to-do" list BAHAHA!). I hope everyone has a great weekend!

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We built an...

9/3/2015

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ENTERTAINMENT center for our family room! I can't get this thing done fast enough. Since we moved into this house, about 9 months ago, our books have been in boxes. It's sad because our books are a big part of who we are and it just doesn't feel like home until those babies are out. Plus, all the kids learning activities and homeschooling leftovers are all a huge mess in my pantry right now, so I am very eager to get it all out and soothe my inner obsessive organizing self.

I started with paint. I was eager to get a fresh coat of paint on the walls in the family room. It definitely helps with making the house smell more like your own family. We could still smell the previous owners (which wasn't a bad smell, but we wanted to walk into our own house and smell our own family smell...if that makes any sense ;) Calvin helped take all the switch plates off. Maya wanted to help paint, but to be completely honest, I am NOT one of those moms who likes to have their kids help with painting. It drives me nuts and I try and save the painting for when there are NO kids in the house or keep them mostly outside until I am finished.

You can see the paint samples. The samples are all of the same color, but just spread throughout the room to get an idea with all of the light changes. It's funny seeing this color against the white, because now that the walls are painted it doesn't seem like that drastic of a difference. Although, I kind of miss the white in a way and have had thoughts of painting it back to the white I am using in the rest of the downstairs rooms, BUT don't tell Johnny that...he would not be very happy with me if I spent more money on paint for a room that I just painted LOL! For now it's fine and we will live with it :)

So, you can also see the wainscoating on the wall in the picture above with the very lonely and awkwardly hanging tv. The wainscoting was here before we moved in. It was nice, but we had to remove them in order to mount the entertainment center flush with the wall.

Here is the other side of the room. This is our breakfast nook. We have some big plans for this part of the room as well, but Johnny made a deal with me that once we finished the entertainment center (goal: this weekend), we would spend a couple of weekends doing some fun family things :) But it doesn't hurt anyone to talk about it. Here it is "now" down below after painting it and adding a few decorations. Our plans for this part of the room are:
+ add white or natural linen roman blinds + paint the seats of the dining chairs black (I will probably be doing that sooner then later, since it's something I won't need help with) + build a larger round table with lighter natural colored wood and more modern lines + build a bench seat for the window area that will hold those baskets you can see behind the table....and the kitchen on the left, that is a whole project for WAY down the road. Right now we are trying to apply for loan money to help pay for flooring upstairs and downstairs.

Here is right after we held up the first part of our entertainment center and tore out the wainscoting (which you can actually still see on the floor to the right side of the room). There was plywood underneath the wainscoting which we were able to tear off and reuse for the backs of the entertainment center. Yeah for repurposing and saving money :)

Here it is with all of the bookshelves put together. NOTE: the dresser on the left standing in as a sofa table is not going to stay there....I need Johnny to help me build a skinnier sofa table/shelf thing that will go there and look more appropriate...still haven't decided what color to paint it or not to paint it. The dresser is just standing in as a visual guide for hanging the art wall (which I am still not 100% sure..more on that in a bit) and holding the table lamp for much needed lighting since I took down the wall sconce. I LOVE my vintage art, but I fight myself fighting between having one LARGE piece of decor on the wall (pleasing my more neat and clean and simple self) OR giving it a more eclectic and relaxed vibe...probably won't be sure until the entertainment center is 100% finished with paint and hardware and decorated and all :) Why is it so much easier to make decisions regarding someone else's house and so hard to make decisions for my own home??? Also NOTE: the sectional needs to move a tiny bit back so there isn't so much of the rug sticking out the back. Oh, and I am still not sure if I will keep that huge sheepskin on the back of the sofa...for some reason all the kids like to put their dirty hands on the back of the sofa and this solution is saving the sofa back for now ;) I also love the texture, but won't be sure until everything else is done. Haha! You are really getting to see my indecisive side and all the ugly unfinished parts of my house...like the hideous and stained concrete floors! Ha! But it's no fun to post only the finished and perfectly styled projects. I'm just trying to keep it real over here ;)

Another thing I noticed is that this wall should have an odd number of pictures, right?!!! I guess I still need to figure this out! Oh well. Now you can see how things don't necessarily come easily for me. It's A LOT of trial and error in my own house. There are holes all over that wall from trying out another gallery wall before this one that ended up being disastrous and HUGE and completely wrong in every way ;) I WILL figure this out, but I think I need to wait until the entertainment center is done and filled in. We need to add recessed lighting in here as well, because this room can get very dark during the day. One thing that will help with better lighting is taking out that blank wall that goes into the stairwell.

In my mind this wall removal is a MUST, but Johnny is hesitant and wants to explore a little more before I get to tear sheetrock down ;) That closed white door goes into my pantry, but that will be moving into the kitchen when we start our kitchen project. The high ceiling/stairwell roofline in the stairwell will allow us to put in a big skylight (hopefully) and that will give us a lot more light in this room and in our very dark entryway. I really hope that my plan works. So, back to the entertainment center. Johnny had to cut holes in the bookshelves and rig up new trim for behind both of the air vents at the top. That is the intake and it can't be moved, so we had to work around them. They will be painted the same color as the rest of the bookcase (which will be a nice creamy white). One more before and after of our progress so far.

The large two bottom sides of the bookshelves are going to have doors and two shelves in each section for storing family games and kids learning games, etc. The middle area right beneath the tv will be drawers. We made the tv space larger then our current tv because most people have larger tv's and if we were to ever sell this house in the future, then hopefully that space is large enough and won't be an issue. Maybe this time next week, I will have a more finished looking bookcase. Last weekend we weren't feeling the best and were busy with family stuff, but Johnny was able to place the antennae inside the air intake behind the left vent (we don't have cable, so we just use the antenna for the local channels and use our apple tv for watching movies and shows). We are planning on hiding all of the cords in the wall space behind the entertainment center. Maybe we will make that a part of our exciting Friday night plans. OR maybe not ;)

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A DUKE And DUCHESS

Primer and Face Frame

A Plant Weakness

We built an...

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A DUKE And DUCHESS

Primer and Face Frame

A Plant Weakness

We built an...

﻿ARCHIVES﻿

ARCHIVES